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Monday, January 20, 2014

Sometimes
I forget that instead of nitpicking at a book or movie that was so-so and that makes
me do that meh-face, or kvetching about
my own writing, that I should, you know, like, squee about books I recently readand that made me squee.

Did
I say squee?

Um,
ahem. I don't squee. Never squee.

Thou
shalt not squee.

Oh,
who am I kidding? OhMyGodI'mGonnaSquee.
Hashtag it. Or something. It's what the kids are doin' these days right?
Smoking hashtags?

Anyway,
my latest SqueeBook is The Havoc Machine
by Steven Harper.

Obligatory
blurb:

In a world riddled with the destruction of men
and machines alike, Thaddeus Sharpe takes to the streets of St. Petersburg,
geared toward the hunt of his life….Thaddeus
Sharpe’s life is dedicated to the hunting and killing of clockworkers. When a
mysterious young woman named Sofiya Ekk approaches him with a proposition from
a powerful employer, he cannot refuse. A man who calls himself Mr. Griffin
seeks Thad’s help with mad clockwork scientist Lord Havoc, who has molded a
dangerous machine. Mr. Griffin cares little if the evil Lord lives or dies; all
he desires is Havoc’s invention.Upon
Thad’s arrival at Havoc’s laboratory, he is met with a chilling discovery.
Havoc is not only concealing his precious machine; he has been using a young
child by the name of Nikolai for cruel experiments. Locked into a clockwork web
of intrigue, Thad must decipher the dangerous truth surrounding Nikolai and the
chaos contraption before havoc reigns….

What
was Squee-worthy:

Thaddeus Sharpe is a fantastic protagonist, and one that
anyone who has dealt with loss of a loved one can identify with. He's smart,
capable, and a hero who's not afraid to use knives. He's also outwardly singularly
focused on revenge, but like all good books, he wonders and second-guesses
himself along the way. What sealed it for me is his relationship with the
young-boy, Nikolai, and his internal struggle with not seeing this new addition
to his life as the son he lost.

Add
in spider-machines running amok, the dangerous court of Tsar Alexander full of
intrigue and executions, the famous big-top family of the clockwork circus, and
the madness of clockworker geniuses given their genius with a deadly plague...and
you have a mix for a good read.

The Havoc
Machine
is a rocking good time in an intriguing steampunk world.

This
is the fourth (and yet standalone) book in the Clockwork Empire series. Seriously read the others, i.e. The Doomsday Vault, The Impossible Cube, The Dragon Men.

P.P.S: No, I'm not getting paid, bribed, or otherwise Chinese-finger-trap tortured, or under duress to promote this. Though if you want to I do accept bribes in the form of money. And food. And did I mention money?